of the encumbrance of my rifle by securing it to a cord I had with me, and so draw it up after me: the torch I could cast away.

This was not a bad plan, if I could have been assured against mishaps from without the cave, such as the rock falling, or an Indian surprise, or the failure of my friends above to do what was needed at the right moment, or any other unforeseen accident. Apart from these, the device promised well enough, if only the end in view had been worth the attendant risk. But how often does a plan work just as the planner expects? This one was to turn out quite otherwise. It is my excuse that I was young and very foolish.

Having thought it all over, I sent Jack up the mountain to fetch me some pine knots for torches; he soon brought them, grinning the while, and showing more interest than he usually did in my doingsexcept when he thought I was going to thrash him.

I then laid aside my bundle and my hunting-shirt, that there might be nothing to obstruct me in climbing; I would have taken off my moccasins too, but for the fear of wounding my feet on the rough and jagged floor below. I tied the cord, which was long enough for my purpose, to the rifle, instructing the boy to hold fast the end. This was his part of the work, for Rover, after I had descended a little way, was to thrust after me a great bundle of flaring knots tied to a pole, to give me more light, and was besides to stand ready to pass his own rifle down, in case a second shot should be needed.

As for me, I was to clamber down as I could, with my rifle in one hand and my torch in the other. My axe was on my back, and my big knife in my belt, to be prepared for accidents.

When fully ready, I tried, as I had done once or twice before, to rouse the bear by pitching stones down, but she made no stir that I could hear. I then charged Jack to hold fast the cord, and not be frightened. The last advice I might have spared, for he was grinning with joy. He hated me for the trouncings I had given him of old, and for some other reasons; and, being a true Indian, though only half-blooded, he could not conceal his pleasure at seeing me go down into what he probably thought would be my grave.

Rover said not a word, and looked at me gloomily all the time, as if incensed at my obstinacy. But when I began to climb down the tree, he seized me by the hand, and cried, with a fierce voice, "Come back, sir, and don't play the fool any longer. You've done enough to show your mettle, and the thickness of your skull. Come back, I say!" I jerked away my hand, and he muttered, "Go, then, and the devil go with you!"

I thought in my heart that he was only angry at my proving bolder than he, and at the greater credit I should get among the young men in consequence. I forgot in my excitement that I was cut off from home by fate and solemn vows, and might never again see my old acquaintances, to boast of my exploit.

Scarce was my head below the surface, when I found my left foot resting on a knot, or fragment of a bough, capable of sustaining my weight. Here I paused a minute, and stretched out my torch, to try if I could yet penetrate the gloom of the abyss. But the rocks close

about my face prevented turning my eyes in any direction except downwards, and I was half blinded by the smoke which came sweeping up from the torch, as in a chimney.

Before descending farther, I twisted round my arm twice or thrice the cord that guarded my rifle, for fear it might by some accident slip from my hand. I also called to Rover to get ready his lights, and heard him answer, in a surly tone, "Go on. You would take your own way, and I wish you joy of it. I have no more to say to you."

I pushed on, and was so lucky as to find, about six feet below the first one, a second knot on the tree, or rather the remains of a bough, so big and strong that I could rest both feet on it with perfect ease. I then came to a stand, and, advancing my torch, endeavored to look about me.

I found I was not above ten or twelve feet from the rock on which the butt of the tree rested; but, from all I could yet discover, it seemed that this was only a shelf of stone, lying on the gap or river side of the den; this portion was narrow and smooth, while the other, toward the mountain, appeared to be spacious, with its floor much lower than the ledge directly under me. All this I could see only very imperfectly with my single torch; but the smoke was not so troublesome as before.

While I strove vainly to pierce the gloom that invested the distant part of the abyss, I heard a sudden snorting noise, made no doubt by the bear as it now caught sight of me. I was not at all discouraged by this note of warning, but on the contrary rejoiced, being still more persuaded than before that I was in no real danger. Still, I was not disposed to forego the advantage of the perch on which I stood, for I could now see that there was no other foothold on the tree below me. I therefore called softly to Rover to push down his lights, hoping by their means to obtain a view of the beast.

I waited half a

No lights appeared, nor was there any answer. minute, and then, thinking he had not heard me, called to him again and more distinctly, but yet not loudly, for I did not wish to disturb the bear too soon. Still no torches appeared, nor was there any word of reply from above. Surprised and offended, I was about to call to him angrily, when I heard the Cherokee boy suddenly cry out something, but what it was I could not tell; and in an instant down dropped the cord I had committed to his keeping, striking me over the face as I looked up, and very narrowly missing my eye.

My rage and astonishment were great, but, before I could utter a word, I heard Rover scream, rather than say, for his voice was terribly loud and fierce, "Up, Ipsico, up! The Indians! Up!" and the next moment I heard three guns go off, which were perhaps near at hand, though they sounded to me full a mile away.

I remember what happened above and about me rather as the confused whirl of a nightmare than as a waking experience. I heard screams, the stamping of feet, and the rolling of stones, as if a torrent were suddenly pitching down the crag above. Before I could think what to do, or begin to climb to the surface, I felt a sudden shock, as

if struck by a thunder-bolt, and was spun through the air along with a fragment of the tree which I grasped, and rocks, dust, and Heaven knows what beside. My torch was struck from my hand, and myself, in the midst of such gloom as I thought belonged only to hell, pitched through the void, sheer down, as it seemed to me, a thousand feet, and flung with a violence that left me breathless, though not senseless, upon some soft, yielding, and elastic body, from which I rolled over among logs and stones, and twenty bears into the bargain, as I fully believed in my terror; for such a whining, yelling, snuffling, and growling, and tearing up of stones, and plashing in water, as I heard, was surely never heard before, unless in the very pit of darkness.

X.

BURIED.

I STARTED to my feet, insensible of the wounds and bruises I had received in my fall, and, stumbling over a rock, found myself in the grasp of some groaning monster, I knew not what-but it was tearing me to pieces. Thanks be to Heaven, my rifle was still in my hand, for the twist of the cord round my arm had thus preserved it: with what speed I could, I thrust it into my enemy's jaws or bowels, I knew not which-for I was in the blackness of midnight-and drew the trigger. The roar of the piece in that confined vault was horrible. Injured and broken by the fall, it burst in my hands, and I could see the fire flashing out, not only from the vent and muzzle, but from the barrel, as it was rent asunder by the explosion. In that momentary light, dazzling as it was, and followed by darkness blacker than before, I beheld the yawning mouth and grinning fangs of the creature that was killing me. But whether I had slain it, and was thus released, or whether the same prodigious and to me inexplicable power that had an instant before hurled me into its grasp now tossed me from it again, I could not tell; but away I went, dashed headlong over the stones, bruised and cut, but no longer in immediate danger.

Again I rose, and, flying I knew not whither, struck against what seemed the wall of the den, and the shock again threw me prostrate. But I rose instantly, in a frenzy of joy, for as I fell on my back my eyes caught a ray of light above, and it was the most blissful sight they ever looked on. My hands touched the platform on which had rested the butt of the trunk I was descending when the dreadful accident occurred that almost robbed me of my senses. The fragments of the tree yet lay upon it, and in an instant I clambered up, thanking God, and calling to Rover for assistance.

But, as I called, I heard sounds that filled me with terror, and saw a sight that froze my blood. I heard the rattling of many feet over my head, and voices crying in the Shawnee tongue, "Shoot, brother, shoot!" and "Run, brother, run! for mighty fine scalps have the LongKnives!" Instantly I remembered how Rover had called me, crying, "Indians !" and I knew he was at that dreadful moment beset by them,

A BELATED REVENGE.

653

perhaps murdered, and I, like a rat in a trap, unable to break out and help him.

I looked up to the mouth of the pit, and thought no longer of Rover. What I saw explained the mystery of my sudden and violent fall; and, though it assured me of present safety from the savages, it filled me with a foreboding expectation of what was to follow. A huge stone lay over the mouth of the den: the very rock that had overshadowed it like a penthouse, released from its resting-place by some unknown cause, had tumbled there, and shut me up as in a tomb. The shock of its fall had broken the ladder-ash, and as the fragments parted asunder they had hurled me into the pit, as a boy hurls a pebble from a hickory rod or a hollow cane. The passage was not entirely closed there were cracks and crannies left to supply me with air and a little light, but scarce big enough to allow my hand to be thrust through, could I ever succeed in climbing to them.

Were I to say, in the common phrase, that my situation might better be imagined than described, I should lie. No human being can conceive the horror that distracted my mind as I sat at the bottom of that dreary funnel, gazing up at the light that came twinkling down from the four or five crannies, like so many silver stars, and listening to the shouts of the savages, which grew fainter and fainter and presently died away. If they had killed Rover, what must be my fate, left thus deserted in the den of bears? When I thought of that, I be gan to cry aloud, that they might hear my voice and take me out and kill me at once; but they were now too far away. Then I reflected that Rover had perhaps escaped, and by and by would creep back and release me. This belief (for it was not a mere hope) supported me.

I said to myself fifty times that if he had been wounded by the guns that were discharged before I was dashed from the tree, I should have heard a cry of pain, if not from him, yet from the Indian boy, who certainly loved Rover, and all the more that he hated everybody else. If he had fallen, the whoops with which Indians testify their triumph would have reached my ears. But I had heard neither: his last words were a call to me to be up and fly, and all that I could make out from the savages were only encouragements to run fast and shoot well, which seemed to show that Rover was not taken altogether at a hopeless disadvantage. He was fleet of foot; there was no one of our young men in Albemarle, except myself, that could keep him in sight a mile; and when we had been running down a wounded deer together, in our hunts, he used to vow that he was not yet well breathed, when I was well-nigh exhausted.

On his safety, then, depended mine. I did not ask myself why he left me, but why he left me so soon. From the distant sound of the guns I judged that time enough was given him to help me up the ash; and two are better than one, or three than two, in a fight with Shawnees. But then how instantly, as it seemed, had the fall of the fatal rock followed on the firing of the guns! This left him powerless to aid me; for I knew, even if one man could stir it, which was most unlikely, it would be the work of hours, not of minutes, to remove the heavy door; and more than seconds he could not devote to me.

The fall of this rock, then, had driven him to abandon me. What made it fall? Its position, as I said, was insecure, balanced, as it seemed, on rotting trunks and roots of trees, and ready to be toppled down by any sudden shock. Had it dropped by mere chance? Had the elements conspired against me, to bring it on my head? It was unlikely to be overturned by a sudden gust, for many tornadoes must have blown past and yet left it on its perch. It could not have been thrown down by a sudden flood, for not a drop of water fell, or had fallen, through the chinks. I racked my brains to find out some cause for the calamity, and, though I framed a hundred theories, not one would satisfy me. All I knew was that it had fallen and penned me in, that Rover had fled, pursued by cut-throats, and that my chance of rescue from this frightful cell must hang on the issue of his struggles to preserve his life.

All this time my mental sufferings were so great that I scarce thought of my bodily hurts. I was dreadfully bruised and cruelly cut by my repeated falls among the rocks. Some deep gashes on my right side and my left shoulder had been made by the bear, I thought (when I came to examine them), and my head had been laid open, either by a fragment of my gun when it burst, or by some sharp rock. While I spent hours wondering over the mishaps of a few moments, and mourning my strange fate, I came near bleeding to death, without knowing it, though I felt myself growing sick and feeble. I fell asleep, or dropped into a swoon, I know not which; but probably it was the latter, for I did not dream at all.

At last I awoke, disturbed by something that pushed or pulled me about and made a whining cry. I started up in affright, for I knew it was a bear, and supposed it was devouring me. It fled at the sound of my voice, which I raised in a loud scream, being half beside myself with terror. I heard it stumbling about among the stones and broken boughs; and by and by all was again silent. I say, I had heard it, and felt it, but I saw nothing. All was pitchy darkness about me, and there was no light to be seen above my head. At first I thought Heaven had suddenly struck me blind; for I knew, by feeling about me, that I still lay on the shelf, under the entrance, yet I could see nothing. I' strained my eyes, and altered my position a dozen times, all the while looking up, but perceived neither light nor cranny. Then it occurred to my fears that the Shawnees had discovered my hiding-place, and with true Indian deviltry had set to work, while I was asleep or insensible, and blocked up with earth and stones every little hole at the mouth of the pit, so as to make my fate not only more certain, but more miserable.

While I was in this doleful thought, I saw a little ray suddenly twinkle over my head, and then disappear. I moved my head and caught sight of it again, but again it vanished. I sought it the third time, and a third time beheld it, though only for a moment; yet in that moment I discovered what it was, and almost laughed for joy, so transported was I to find my fears had utterly deceived me. It was a stara beautiful bright star, glimmering up in heaven; and I thought Providence had set it there to comfort me, though it was so soon withdrawn